No Hindi allowed during Teachers Eligibility Test

Over 8,00,000 candidates appearing for the statewide Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) on December 15 will not be allowed to write their answer scripts in Hindi. The reason? The state education department seems to have overlooked the national language even though candidates can answer their papers in Marathi or Urdu if they so wish.

This year, over eight lakh students from across the state are appearing for their BEd and DEd exams. A significant number of them are from non-English medium schools and many of them prefer answering questions in Hindi. A person is recruited as a teacher in the state only once he or she has cleared the TET. Taking note of this seemingly curious bias against the national language, the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee teacher cell (MRCCTC) has dashed off a letter to the state education minister to allow candidates to answer the papers in Hindi along with Marathi and Urdu.

The Maharashtra State Council Of Examination (MSCE) is holding the Maharashtra TET (MH TET) 2013 for those aspiring to be teachers at the primary (class I-V) and upper primary (VI-VIII) levels. Speaking to SUNDAY MiD DAY Dr Dayanand Tiwari, a professor of Hindi at the SIWS College and Chairman of MRCCTC, said, “It is unfair that Hindi has not been included as one of the languages in which candidates may write their answers. We have requested the education department to rectify this and introduce the Hindi language from next year at least. After all Hindi is our national language. We have submitted a letter in this regard to Naseem Khan, the guardian minister, on Wednesday.”

Anila Pillai, vice president, of MRCCTC and vice principal of HR College, said, “As the education minister was not present in Mumbai, we went to meet Naseem Khan, the Guardian Minister of Mumbai Suburban and requested him to propose to introduce Hindi as a subject subject and also as a mode of instruction in exams since many students are from Hindi medium BEd and DEd colleges.”

According to Tiwari, there are 35 DEd Hindi medium colleges and 168 primary Hindi medium schools in Mumbai with 2,52,000 students studying in these schools spread across Mumbai and Thane. When contacted Naseem Khan confirmed that MRCCTC members had approached him. “I have written a letter to the education minister Rajendra Darda and also the additional chief secretary J S Saharia about allowing candidates to write their answers in Hindi. There are many teachers of Hindi medium schools from Mumbai, Marathwada and Vidharba who want to write their examination answers in Hindi and an injustice would be done to them if we prevent them from doing so. We will make sure it is introduced next year.”